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Victory Hotel padlock puzzle

I'm p***ed off! If I had known there was a puzzle like this in this game, I would NEVER have spent my hard-earned money on it!

Sorry for the rant, but the simple fact of the matter is, I am not good with this kind of puzzle. Up to this point, the game has been entertaining. I've enjoyed it. But this is to much.

I understand the principle involved, and I have actually solved the puzzle up to the point where only 1 symbol is out of place. I can't get it into place. It is usually 90 degrees away from where it needs to be. I can't figure out the moves I need to make to move it 90 degrees. OR, if I move it where it needs to be, I screw up something else.

Every time I restart it, it is a different setup. This makes it impossible to get a step-by-step move guide.

I have been working this for about 1 - 2 hours every night for 5 nights. I'm sick of it. I have had problems in other games, but I have always been able to find a work around, even if it was a cheat. I will happilly accept a cheat now.

PLEASE, can anyone help me? Or did I actually throw away my money on a game I can't get even 1/4 of the way through?

The easiest way to solve the puzzle is one tumbler at a time. Don't do anything fancy like planning out the tumblers five steps in advance. This isn't Chess, it's just a pattern-matching puzzle. Here's the Sianna Tors' method to doing them. For the examples, assume that @, #, $, and + are tumbler symbols for the locks. Pretend the .'s aren't there.

1) I move from left to right. I guess you could do it right to left as well or something more esoteric. It's easiest for me to work left-to-right. But...

2) This is an optional step, but I find it makes life easier if you're having trouble with these puzzles. Pre-position the last symbol on the right first. I know, I know, I sound like I'm violating my own rules, but this will make your life easier. Look at the topmost "master" symbol on the rightmost (fourth) tumbler. Move the symbols around until match symbol is to the right like so:

...@
...$
+.....@
...#
...#

This way, one click of that tumbler will move the symbol into the solved position:

...@
...@
$.....#
...+
...#

Anytime you manipulate the the 4th tumbler, always make sure the "solving" symbol is one click away from being in the solved position when you're done moving any symbols off of it. This will make your life easier later as all you need to do is match the left symbol on the fourth tumbler when you get to it.

3) Now, starting with the leftmost, do what you have to in order to bring the symbols you need to the leftmost tumbler in the proper positions.

4) Once that's done, rotate the tumber so it's in the "solved" position and leave it that way. At most, rotate it 180 so that the symbols are in the correct positions but reversed. This is critical if you don't want to frustrate yourself.

Example 1: Correct. Leave the tumbler in this position. This is the "solved" position, since the symbols match their respective "masters". The tumbler will light up as "solved." This is the correct tumbler placement of symbols for manipulating adjacent tumblers:

...@
...@
+.....$
...#
...#

Example 2: Correct. The position below, which is a reverse of the "solved" position. Notice the symbols are still in the correct order on the wheel, even though it won't light up as "solved." You just need to click the tumbler twice and it'll go back to a solved position. This is also the correct position as you can manipulate any adjacent tumblers without messing up what you've already done:

...@
...#
$.....+
...@
...#

Example 3: Incorrect. In the example below, you're going to mess up your already solved tumbler if you manipulate the tumbler to the left or the right of this one, because it'll remove one of the correctly placed symbols.

...@
...+
@.....#
...$
...#

Conclusion: Always check that your solved tumblers are in the "solved" position or in the reverse of it before manipulating any other tumblers. Since there's only four symbols per tumbler, you should be able to manipulate all of the symbols on all tumblers without that much ahead-planning.

5) Move to the next tumbler to the right. Find the two symbols you need and work on moving them over to the proper positions on the second tumbler. If you need to get a symbol from a tumbler you've already solved, always make sure you tumber is in the 'solved' position or the 180 position before rotating the other tumblers. These two positions will let you transfer over any symbol without messing up what you already have.

6) Repeat steps 4 and 5 until the lock is solved.

Some observations:

* You can always "store" symbols on a tumbler you've already solved provided they're in the "left" or "right" position on the tumbler. You can even move them down the line of solved tumblers by rotating your solved tumblers from the "solved" position to the 180 of it, then spinning the next tumbler down the line. Just be sure your solved tumblers are always in "solved" or their 180 before spinning any other tumblers.

* When you're working on a tumbler, it's best to work on them looking at the left and right positions. Don't try fancy stuff like planning ahead three tumblers down. You can always move symbols easily and safely later by using the above rules. So match up the symbols first, then spin the tumbler one (or three) times to the solved position.

It wasn't that hard for me. I actually wished the padlock puzzle was a bit more difficult, like "you must solve the puzzle in X number of moves" which would make you plan it out a bit more. As is, there's no time limit (which is a good thing) and you can sort of brute-force it (a bad thing).

But not everyone's brains are wired the same way, so I thought I'd see if I could help.

took me like 15 mins to solve the first "lock pick" puzzle but after that it gets faster and it's kinda fun... like a "mini puzzle" game ... in fact later I solved this lock pick puzzle game faster than hacking by using the mobile phone...

yeah, the hacking with the phone was harders since it relies less on a given strategy and more on individual skills in observation and visual memory... I just thought that I never tried pausing the game during that minigame, it could be a simple and neat cheat

This puzzle isn't that hard. I solved it in around 5 minutes. What is important is that you look which symbols you do not need so you can use these as dummy's to manipulate the positions of the symbols you do need. I started from the right and worked my way to the left but basically you can do it from left to right as well. It is important to get the symbols opposite from eachother (180 degrees). You can get to this using the dummy's.

Succes!!

BTW. How do you open the door of the hotel? Found the axe but can not use it?